Hunan Flower Drum Opera originated from folk songs and gradually developed into a primary form of flower drum opera once a clown sang. The Liuyang County Record published in 1818, the twenty-third year of the Jiaqing period in the Qing Dynasty, when talking about the local Lantern Festival Dragon Lantern Playing situation, said: "and the children dressed in clowns and dancers sang in the theater, and the drums and drums were loud and noisy from the beginning of the day to the end of the night". That once a clown sings the flower drum opera - ground flower drums, at the latest in the Qing Jiaqing period has been formed. According to Yang Enshou "Tanyuan diary" in the first year of the Qing dynasty Tongzhi (1862), Yang Enshou in Hunan Yongxing to watch the "Flower Drums" (i.e., Flower Drum Opera), there have been four roles of the scholar, the boy, Liu Ying, Liu Ying maidservant, and the plot and performance is more vivid, indicating that at this time of the Flower Drum Opera not only has been developed into a "three small" (the little Dan), but also "three small" (the little Dan, the little Dan, the little Dan). Three small" (small Dan, clown, small student) play, and the performance form also has a certain scale. From the sound and repertoire, the early folk tunes and songs and dance of life, such as "playing birds", "disk flower", "send cousin", "look at the face" and so on. Later, the "gong cavity" and "Sichuan tune" were imported, and storytelling folklore plays gradually appeared. The main repertoire of the gong-playing cavity includes "Qingfeng Pavilion", "Lulin Meeting", "Eight Hundred Miles of Dongting", "Xuemei Teaching Her Son", etc. The main repertoire of the Chuan tune includes "Liu Hai Playing with the Toad", "Whipping the Reeds", "Zhang Guangda's Longevity", and "Catching up with the Son on the Road". In this way, an artistically complete local theater was formed.
Early flower-drum opera is only semi-professional class in the rural areas for seasonal performances, busy farming, agricultural leisure from the arts. Since the Guangxu period, the development of this class society faster, only Ningxiang, Hengyang County, there are dozens of "line box", nearly 200 artists. Training actors to take with the class with the teacher, there are also apprentices to pass on the art, called "teaching field" or "teaching museum", each dozens of days, teaching three or four plays. In the past, due to the frequent discrimination and banning of flower-drum opera, flower-drum opera classes all over the world used to perform locally popular opera repertoire as cover, and this kind of class was called "half-taiwan" or "half-opera, half-tune," "yin and yang classes. ". After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the establishment of professional troupes in various parts of the country, into the city theater public performances.
Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter for its classic repertoire, popular, has been sung by people.
According to the statistics in 1981, there were 54 flower-drum opera troupes in the province, and the Hunan Provincial Flower Drum Opera Theater was set up. 1957, the Hunan Provincial Opera School was established, with a flower-drum opera specialty. Traditional repertoire The traditional repertoire of Flower Drum Opera in various places, totaling about 400, mainly reflects folk life, mostly based on production and labor, love between men and women or family conflicts, with vivid language and a strong local flavor. The plays "Playing the Causeway", "Mending the Pot", "On the Way of Delivery" and "Wild Duck Island" have been made into movies.
Hunan Flower Drum Opera, due to the popularity of different regions and Changsha Flower Drum Opera, Yueyang Flower Drum Opera, Hengyang Flower Drum Opera, Shaoyang Flower Drum Opera, Changde Flower Drum Opera, Zuoling Flower Drum Opera and other six schools of thought, which are all characterized by different artistic styles. It originated from the development of folk songs in the south of Hunan Province, and developed from once a clown singing to "three small" singing. The traditional repertoire of Flower Drum Opera has more than four hundred repertoires and more than three hundred musical tunes. According to its structure and different musical styles, it can be divided into four categories, namely, Sichuan tune, gong cavity, brand, and minor tune, all of which have the characteristics of roughness and coolness, and rich local color. The music is mainly accompanied by the Hunan flower drums, which are very characteristic of the region, as well as suona, pipa, flute, gongs and drums, and other ethnic instruments. The tune is lively and light, and the melody is smooth and bright. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the art of flower-drum opera has developed considerably, not only finishing traditional plays such as "Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter" and "Fighting Birds", but also creating a number of modern plays such as "Double Delivery of Grain", "Aunt and Sister-in-Law Busy", and "Sanliwan". Such as "playing gongs", "mending pots", "delivery road", "wild duck continent" and so on have been made into a movie. Especially sung throughout the north and south of the Yangtze River, popular at home and abroad, Hunan flower-drum opera famous drama "Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter" and its popular "than the ancient tune" sung by the people around the country by the masses. There are more than 400 flower-drum operas in different parts of Hunan, and in Hubei, there is the saying of "thirty-six big ones and seventy-two small ones", most of which reflect the people's labor, love between men and women and family conflicts, such as "Beating Birds", "Plate of Flowers", "Xuemei Teaches Her Son", "Whipping the Reed", "Embroidered Lotus Bags", "Catching the Son on the Road", "Chopping Woodcutter in the Liu Sea", "Mending the Pot", "Sueing the Scripture", and "The Success of the Warriors". Mending Pot", "Sue Jing Cheng", "Buckwheat Records", "Tian Xian Matching", "Drunken Flower Leader" and so on. There are also some plays with Yu Laoshi and Zhang Dehe as the main characters, all of which reflect the local customs with a strong local flavor. Therefore, the flower-drum opera has a very close relationship with the local people's life, coupled with different languages, different masters of origin, different genres, each region of the flower-drum opera has its own style characteristics, so there are a variety of types of flower-drum opera.
Musical tunes The musical tunes of the flower-drum opera are about 300, basically, the structure is a combination of the song, supplemented by plate changes, according to the structure of the tunes, musical style and different methods of expression, can be divided into four categories: Chuan tunes. Or known as the main palace tune, that is, the string tune, big tube, suona accompaniment, tune by the door phrase and singing phrase composition, modulation, melody changes are rich, is the main singing of the flower-drum opera. Gong Cavity. Also known as the gong cavity, the structure of the song, "cavity", "flow" (several boards) combined, not hosting the strings, a person to open the mouth of the crowd to help and, as high as the cavity, is the Changsha, Yueyang, Changde, one of the main singing of flower-drum opera.